It's All In The Detail
by Lantern92
Summary: Dil's "imaginary" friend Izzy suddenly isn't as imaginary anymore...
1. Chapter 1

20 minutes until school was done. Forever.

See, my parents expected me to return home with a high school diploma, but I guess they never anticipated it to be two years earlier than my older brother. Oh the joys of procreating a 'genius'.

_Genius_. Hm... I rarely used that word to describe myself for two simple reasons; one it was a bit self-involved for my liking and two it was a title and I hated being labelled, it felt too constricting.

I liked senior year. In fact, I enjoyed it more than 8th grade (yeah, do the math of how many grades I skipped). What I had a problem with were my classmates. Being the only kid three years younger, four to some, saying it was hard to make friends was a bit of an understatement.

Most people thought I was an arrogant, offbeat freak of nature because of my unusually high IQ. Of course, it was not my fault I had the brain I had so I usually ignored people's snide remarks. I understood that they were intimidated by my intelligence, probably even jealous; as a result I rarely took any of it to heart.

The only people I knew from my grade were Angelica, Susie and Harold. If it wasn't for the fact that we had literally known each other since we were in diapers, I would have been left to navigate the perils of senior class on my own. However, our timetables were way too different. With me taking advanced classes for most of the curriculum, my days were spent sitting alone by the fields, sketching on an art pad.

_You know they won't even notice you're gone_ I heard an all too familiar voice.

I shook my head dismissively, looking around me at the empty class. Most people had decided to ditch the last 5 hours of school, save for the teacher's pets and friendless loners such as myself. Breaking rules wasn't my scene, plus I was in no rush to get home and be even more bored.

_C'mon Dil. Let loose for once_…! begged the invisible entity.

Keeping my head down, I ignored the suggestions.

See, the voice talking to me was an actual audible voice I could hear. It had a feminine pitch and most of the time it told me things about people that I preferred not to know like where their parents grew up or trivial things they were thinking about.

Ever since I was a baby until I turned 12 I actively entertained _her_. She was best known to my family and friends as my imaginary friend Izzy. I had let everyone know she was a guy to avoid all the strange looks I knew I would get when I'd tell them that Izzy and I usually liked staying in my room doing 'stuff'. I figured at that young age that it would be worrying for any parent to hear their child say that, so I changed her gender to be the same as my own and donned her as my imaginary friend.

To this day, I'm not even too sure what Izzy _is_.

She's definitely not a ghost because she hates being called that and always denies it, laughing it away or completely ignoring the allegations. Whenever I watch movies with ghosts in them she usually tells me that it's fake and that ghosts they don't exist because the physics of the 'unseen world' doesn't allow it. I remembered raising an eyebrow at that statement to which she just replied _You're not the only one here with an unnaturally high IQ for your age_.

After a while of probing I just figured I wouldn't ask because of all the unseen entities I could think to ask that she was … she denied all. Not angel, demon, ghost, phantom, spirit, alien, goddess.

"So what are you?" I asked when I was 8 years old.

_Well, I'm what humans call 'energy'_. She'd say playfully and throw back a ball I'd be tossing to her.

She was round about my age, which I estimated by how she acted throughout the years. Go figure. We grew up at the same rate; so in human years, she would now be 15. Just like me.

RING!

And with that shrill unpleasant sound, the short high school chapter of my life was done. I was definitely not going to miss it.

I went outside to meet up with Susie and Harold who usually drove me home on Friday afternoons. It was a bright and sunny day and everyone's moods seemed to mirror the weather. Everyone but me, that is. Happy. Excited. Bright. Free.

"Hey Dil!" Susie called from the parking lot.

I walked over to them and Harold who was leaning against the car nodded his greetings while texting. I noticed there was someone else with them.

The girl was short, with a mocha complexion just like Susie's. She had long bouncy brown curls and was donning a black skater dress that showed off her nice legs with a pink denim jacket on top…. To cut a possibly long description of how perfect she was, I guess I'll just say she was extremely pretty. I had to force my eyes off her to keep from staring rudely.

"This is my cousin Rem," said Susie. "Remie this is Dylan, Tommy's younger brother. He's a genius, just graduated high school with us even though you guys are the same age."

Rem smiled and flashed a set of perfect teeth hidden behind pink braces. I couldn't help but smile back as her hand met my suddenly sweaty one, "Hey."

"Nice to meet you," she replied rather shyly. "I'm gonna be staying here for the vacation."

"Oh, great." I genuinely meant it. Seeing more of her would make my vacation more bearable, and at least now I had someone my own age to hang out with. Aside from Izzy, I had Tommy and his friends. They were fun but not relatable. Sometimes I got the impression that they didn't want me around either.

"Can we go before my mom yells at me for not getting all my stuff packed?" asked Harold. He was going to move with his aunt in the same city he had college in or something like that. I wasn't too sure because Harold usually spoke while going around in circles about other things. Not even my super brain could keep up. At least I got the gist of his plans.

We got in the car and I put on my seatbelt as Susie turned on the radio. Harold spoke about his new college excitedly. I tried to listen to him but I was too nervous about being so close to Rem.

_She smells nice._ Izzy said. I secretly agreed.

I was not ready to talk to 'energy' in front of a cute girl. It would look real creepy and she'd probably dive out of the car, running away scared.

"And speaking of colleges, have you applied yet, Dil?" asked Harold.

"Uh, yea. Well I had to go through all the applications with my parents, so we sent them to the major ones. Waiting for a reply any day now." I said.

"Sounds great, but where do _you_ want to go?" Harold said.

"To be honest, any respected campus with a good physics department," I said.

"You like physics?" asked Rem.

"Yup." I said. "It's cool. In a fun way… even though that sounds totally nerdy."

_How smooth_ Izzy teased.

Rem laughed encouragingly. A quiet sigh of relief escaped my mouth; good thing she was light hearted. As I was about to ask her about her school, there was a loud screeching sound like breaks coming to an abrupt halt. The strong inertia threw me forward but my seatbelt lashed against my chest, causing a sharp pain and potentially leaving a bruise.

I looked up, dizzy and muddled. Once the impact collected, I saw that Susie and Harold had been forcibly thrown against their seats by their airbags which protected them from harm.

I gathered my bearing and looked around, my vision blurry and smelling burning metal. I saw that glass had sprayed inside the car from a gaping hole in the windscreen. Looking beside me, I realized that Rem had not been wearing her seatbelt...

I struggled to break free from my own seatbelt but when I eventually did, I tried to open my door. I was unable to push against the car that pinned us in from the right side. The other side was free though, so I acted fast. I knew I had to get everyone out somehow, lest there be a gas leak that might cause an explosion.

Looking ahead I also knew I had to get to Rem somehow and help her while first responders came to her aid. I checked Harold and Susie's pulses; relieved to find that they were alive. I shook them both in an attempt to wake them up. Harold managed to come to but was in a state of panic.

"Harold, Harold, Listen. You need to calm down and somehow get Susie out from the front," I told him. "It's not safe to stay in here."

He nodded, but didn't look like he was actually sure of what he was supposed to do. It was up to me to get everyone out of here.

"Oh shit… shit. Shit, shit." He reiterated. He was staring straight ahead into the road. I followed his gaze and saw a pink denim jacket over a black dress, her body crumpled there unnaturally. If she was alive, that would have been one hell of a stroke of luck.

_She's dead Dil_

"How do you know…?" I asked as I kicked out the door opposite me.

"What?" asked Harold.

"Nothing, we need to get out of here!" I yelled, going to the front and opening his door to free him. After I helped him out, I pulled Susie and dragged her to a nearby tree where Harold tended to her, trying to wake her.

When I went back to the scene of the accident, I saw that a truck had hit us from the side, and the car coming behind us had also slammed into us. That was probably what caused the forceful lunge forward that made Rem go flying through the glass.

Rem!

I ran to her, and turned her. Her sweet face was all scratched and bruised, glass sticking out and upper layer skin scrapped off on the tarmac.

"Oh dear god, Rem please wake up," I said, checking her pulse. Nothing.

_Dil, she's dead_

I ignored Izzy and began CPR while furiously pumping her chest. "Don't die, not now. Susie and your family need you."

_Dil, I can't sense any energy from her… she's no more_

I sat there with her for five minutes, ignoring Izzy's words and then a passerby came and tried to help by offering first aid but he looked solemnly at Rem's body.

A small crowd had formed, and I could feel that there was nothing else to be done. How was it possible that I had been with her just seconds ago and now she was dead?

Life strikes again.

I felt the sting of tears fill my warm watery eyes as I held her hand. This couldn't be happening….

"Son, she's gone," said a man sympathetically, pulling me away from her body.

"No," I said, feeling defeated. Not the best feeling in the world. So foreign. So unfamiliar. "No. Her family… but, Susie …"

"There there," the man said, consoling me. "Help is coming just now. Come on, now."

As he said that the medical team arrived and tried to resuscitate her. There was no hope of her waking up at all and after hooking her up to some portable medical machine, they found no heartbeat.

"Time of death-" began one of the paramedics.

But in that instant, I witnessed her gasp for breath and open her eyes.

"Oh my god!" yelled a woman standing nearby. "She's alive!"

The medical staff was just as shocked as her vitals began picking up. How was a person that had been clinically dead for almost 12 minutes suddenly returned to life?

I ran to her side "Rem, it's me, Dil," I explained. "Susie and Harold are ok. You'll be just fine."

"I…" she attempted but unintelligible murmurs were heard.

"Ma'am do you know your name?" asked the paramedic as they lifted her up to get into the hospital.

"It's… uh. I… Izzy," I heard her say.

What? Wait…

No. That can't be right.

And for the first time in my whole life I realized that I couldn't feel Izzy's presence anywhere near.


	2. Chapter 2

Two weeks after the accident, I lay motionless on the carpeted floor of my room, listening.

I listened as the late night turned into early morning, the life outside stir awake and the light begin to penetrate my room through cracks in my blinds. I tried to convince myself I was just unable to sleep because of trauma, but really I was listening for Izzy.

After spending all 15 years of my life hearing her, practically waking up to her talking about birds and how she was looking forward to breakfast to watch milk (apparently, she was fascinated by the stuff) it felt almost unnatural not having her around.

What was even more unsettling was where my suspicions told me she was… either _with_ Rem or _possessing_ her. The latter caused a shiver to creep down my spine and I closed my eyes, trying to figure out how to proceed.

How was that even possible? I mean, I had a few of my theories about energy and it being recycled or transferred, but I really could not be sure whether I was correct. I did a lot of online reading about energy and people resurrecting from the dead, even attempting to type any possibly sane explanation as to why this could have happened, only to come up empty handed.

It was only now that I began to appreciate how extremely weird it was for me to have been hearing this voice all my life, and treated it like a friend when no one else on the planet had ever had this experience before.

My parents and brother were worried about me. More than anything, they sympathized with my situation, but as everyone had begun to recover well and get back to their lives… Harold off to college as planned, Susie recovering completely and Rem apparently wide awake now after coming out of a seven day coma … everyone thought I would just get over the ordeal and move on.

There was a knock on my door.

"Honey?" came my mother's soft voice. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah it's unlocked."

My mother proceeded with caution as if she was dealing with a frightened zoo animal, looking around she frowned disappointedly and headed to the windows to open them and brighten up the place.

"Dylan, sweetheart," she said looking at me still lying on the floor. "Susie's mother just called and she said Remitha was well enough to see people…."

I knew where this was heading.

"…I think if you go see for yourself that she's alright you'll get closure on the whole situation," she said. "Susie and Harold and all your friends have been calling here every day wondering about you."

"I'm fine," I said dismissively.

"Now Dil, Dr Lipschitz says that putting yourself out there is a good way to come to grips with these kinds of trauma," my mother informed me. "It's not healthy to coop yourself up in this room like this."

"Mom," I interrupted her. "Sorry but could you not bring up Lipschitz everytime I have a problem. The guy's a fraud."

"Dylan, I know you're upset, but I'm –"

"I'm fine!" I snapped, unnecessarily harshly.

She looked at me angry and sadly, that mom look that you always get when you start to feel guilty about not having heard out what she was going to say.

"Sorry mom," I said just as quickly. "I'll think about it."

She nodded then came to kiss my forehead "I worry about you a lot, baby," she confessed. "Food is downstairs if you need some."

I nodded and when she left, I locked the room behind her, suddenly feeling sleepy from having stayed up so late thinking about this mess. Before I knew it, I was completely out cold on the floor.

* * *

Knock knock knock.

"Dylan?"

"Dil?"

It took my brain a minute to register that I had fallen asleep so quickly. Cool air blew from the window my mother had opened up and annoyed and very shirtless, I stormed to the door and opened it expecting to see my mom holding a tray of food like she had done for the past two weeks.

Standing outside my door was Susie, my mother and Rem. The three ladies smiled awkwardly at my shirtless-sweatpants-bedhead look and I quickly grabbed a shirt from my desk to wear.

"Hey," I said to them "I was sleeping… long night, sorry."

"Dil, Susanna and Remitha dropped by to see you," my mom explained. "Which was awfully nice of you girls."

They smiled at my mom. I tried to smile but I was busy fighting the urge to stare at Rem, to see if anything had changed.

"Well, I have to go run a couple of errands… you kids have fun!" she said, going her way.

"Thank you Mrs Pickles," Susie said.

She turned to me and said "Dil, it's been so long, are you sure you're ok?" she asked, coming into my room unannounced while still talking. "And you completely skipped out on the therapy sessions with Dr Lipschitz we were meant to have."

With Susie in my room I was facing Rem. She had a cast on her wrist and was dressed normally, shorts and a tank top, typical summer clothes. I couldn't help but notice how amazing she looked, extremely pretty, sure… I wanted to ask her what she meant when she said Izzy at the accident, but Susie called to us.

"So we're here to take you to the beach and get you outta here," she said.

I motioned for Rem to come inside and I closed the door, sitting on a chair with books of UFOs stacked on the desk nearby. I watched her from the corner of my eye and nodded at Susie.

"Err, beach?" I asked.

"Yes, everyone's gonna be there. It's a party and we're gonna have a bonfire and stuff." She informed me.

"Oh… ok," I said, I turned to Rem "Are you going?"

She nodded, but didn't say a thing.

"Of course she is," said Susie. "It's like a welcome Rem thing and congrats for recovering."

I feigned a smile, it was thoughtful… I guess. I wondered why Rem wasn't saying a word. Did she recognize/ remember me? Was she really Izzy playing it cool in front of Susie? I had so many questions to ask her.

"Yea so get dressed, we'll wait downstairs for you."

"Ok," I said. "Gimme two minutes."

* * *

The beach had cool air and the water was calm so people were frolicking happily in the waves.

Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Kimi and Angelica were there as well as Susie's siblings and a couple of other people from school. We were quite the party of teenagers.

I sat on my towel listening to music and basking in the sun eating pizza and drinking alcohol that we had smuggled on the beach.

"Hey," someone tapped me on the shoulder.

I pulled my earphones down and looked up to see Rem. Her bikini clung onto her curvy body and her chocolate skin glistened with salt water. I was at a loss for words. It was no secret I was attracted to this girl. My heart quickened as I gave her a warm smile.

"Hey there," I said.

She spread her towel over the hot sand and sat next to me, her knees hugged to her chest. She looked to the horizon then back at me, who was staring at her.

She giggled at me blushing when she caught me gawking at her "Why aren't you playing volleyball or swimming?"

"Not my scene," I said, cooly, turning the music off. This could be my chance to ask her about the whole Izzy thing and finally get piece of mind.

"You need to let loose a bit," she said, which triggered a memeory of the last time I heard Izzy… she had said the same thing.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

Looking at her, she gave me a knowing smile and looked like she was going to laugh at some inside joke "Dylan, sometimes you're way too easy to read."

By now my facial expression had turned into a 'what the fuck' one. I couldn't say anything and I waited for her to tell all before I jumped the gun to accusing her of things unknown.

"I'm easy to read?"

She nodded, undoing her hair from the high bun it was in. I swallowed hard as I watched her hair jealously cling onto her bare skin.

"You really didn't think to even come and see how it happened or even miss me a bit, did you?" she cooed softly, like she was angry and hurt at it. "I was so scared."

"Uhm, Rem, listen…" I started. "I really don't know what you're talking about."

"Actually, it's Izzy." She said.

I looked at her and she looked at me, there it was. There was the proof I needed to run with the case.

"So – is that an admission of guilt?" I asked.

She frowned and stroked my arm, leaving goosbumps in her trail. "For a smart person you sure are slow."

"Izzy," I snapped, shrugging her hand off me. "Why did you do it? That was not cool. Possessing a person like that? I never knew you could do that. It's so…so… devious."

"What? No!" she said, a bewildered look on her face. "I didn't! I swear, Dil, I was just as confused and scared cause…"

"Well?" I prodded when she didn't finish her sentence. She looked away from my gaze both scared and embarrassed. "what happened?"

"I was literally sucked into the body to fill it!" she half screamed, looking like she wanted to cry. This grabbed a lot of people's attention and susie's older brother came over.

"Is there a problem here?" he asked.

"No," Izzy/Rem whatever her name was said. "I was just leaving."

With that she ran away from me, wiping a stray tear. Susie's brother gave me an unimpressed look "You better not have done anything bad to her."


	3. Chapter 3

**_Izzy_**

Being a human was strange.

I felt heavier than I did when I did not have a body. In many ways my body dictated the way I behaved as well. In all my time on earth, I never really understood the notions of _hunger _or_ fatigue _or _emotion_. But now I did. Now those feelings controlled me. Now, I was getting a firsthand experience of what it was like to be human.

I felt hungry after every four or five hours. Not only did I usually feel like I wanted to eat, I was very particular about what I was interested in eating. I was quite biased to sweet tasting things, and disliked eating vegetables.

Every night, my eyes felt heavy. I couldn't keep them open for too long once they started drooping. My body would feel weak and lying down usually helped. I guess that's what humans referred to as sleeping.

Along with those strange generic feelings, I also felt quite overwhelmed by my emotions. I had read up on the human body and realized that not all humans felt this particular way I was feeling.

The body I acquired was experiencing puberty, thus hormonal imbalances dramatically changed the way she… or should I say _I... _perceived and felt things. For example, a strange event occurred every month. It was my understanding that the host body would continuously do this for the rest of its life until 'menopause'. I hated it because it hurt, was uncomfortable, increased my hunger pangs and caused me to require solitude more often than regularly.

Susie was extremely helpful with everything and she would regularly ask if I was alright because of the strange questions I was asking about my body. I used the accident as an excuse but now that I was 'fully recovered'; it would not work so well on her. Thus, I took to reading about human issues on the Internet on a device called a computer.

It was getting darker out on the beach but the wind was still warm.

I usually took a cue from my cousin Susie on how to behave so when she wore clothes, I did the same. I never really understood why I needed to wear clothes since the temperature was not cold. I had always thought humans needed clothes to protect themselves from freezing but apparently they used them for modesty and fashion purposes as well.

I wore a summer dress that was a part of Remitha's… sorry, _my_… luggage and sat by the large bonfire with everyone. My 'cousin brothers' were telling amusing stories about college party experiences that they had. I laughed very hard.

I was much happier now than when I didn't have a body. Maybe it was because of my newly acquired brain and the way it worked. Psychologically, it made links that affected the way you understood things, which apparently included humor.

We were having barbequed burgers done by the boys. They weren't sweet but they were delicious. I was warm and laughing. I felt content... happy.

It was quite pleasurable.

I felt another pleasurable sensation emanate from my abdomen. It sent a surge of shivers down my arms and caused me to look up instinctively. Perched on the logs opposite me was Dylan.

He looked engrossed in a thick book. I wondered what was so captivating in it that was possibly better than laughing; but then I realized that Dylan wasn't like most humans. Actually, he was not like _any_ human.

I had known him my whole life. I noticed how dissimilar he was from the beginning. He never did what regular people did; neither did he conform to normalcy. He was just … different. It both fascinated and drew me to him. I guess that's why he was able to talk to me when most humans could not; he had the aura for it.

My host body's heart had quickened and I found myself watching him and appreciating how attractive he was. This was something I never noticed before because I had no brain to assess physical features with. When I was an entity, all human physiques looked the same to me. I could usually tell Dil apart because of his fiery red hair, but that was as far as my notice for human flesh went.

And now when I looked at Dil, it had a much different effect on my body than when I looked at the other attractive human males. His brother Tommy was much taller and had more symmetrical facial features…which apparently equated attractiveness and Phillip had significantly larger muscles, shiny hair and perfect teeth. They were nice to look at, sure, but I didn't feel physically attracted to either of them like I did with Dil.

Maybe there was something wrong with my human host body? Or perhaps I _was_ meant to feel this way in order to procreate? But what if Dylan didn't feel the same and he rejected me?

This was too confusing.

I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up and noticed Dylan was no longer in his spot. I realized I had been talking to myself internally – what humans called 'thinking'. Glancing behind me, I spotted him standing there; he had his hands in his pockets and an expression that I didn't recognize. I knew it wasn't sadness, maybe the word for it was nervousness?

"Hey, wan' take a walk with me?" he asked politely.

My heartbeat quickened once again at how nice he had asked. I remembered that he had hurt my feelings earlier on by insinuating that I had purposefully possessed an innocent person. It offended me because time and again I had told him I could not do that because I wasn't what people on earth called a ghost or demon or whatever possesses people against their will. But it was like he ignored all those conversations and was bent on accusing and blaming me for this mess. Like I did it on purpose.

My expression seemed to have been hesitant, so he added "I wanted to apologize and talk to you."

I relaxed, relieved that he wasn't planning on blaming me again. So I agreed. We began to walk away from the bonfire and everyone else.

There was silence the first minute or so. I did not know what to say so I waited for the apology. I was also feeling a bit excited at finally having some time to speak to him… even if it was about insignificant things. It made me feel like he had taken my feelings into consideration. Like he cared to make the effort to make me feel better.

My dress was fluttering in the breeze and the sand felt warm under my toes. I looked to the horizon and felt particularly small and minor as compared to the vast open ocean and the high skies that stretched endlessly.

"I'm sorry for earlier on. I didn't know you were vacuumed into the body," he said, breaking the silence. "I was confused and I really didn't know what to think."

"That's ok. I'm just as confused about what all this meant or how it happened," I replied. "But you have to understand that this was never my intention."  
"I know," he replied.

A smile appeared on my face. By now we were considerably far from everyone so we stopped walking. He turned to look at me and surveyed my expression, mannerisms and the way I carried myself.

I felt vulnerable under his glare. Being invisible Dylan never really could see me. Sure he had a rough idea of where I was when I spoke to him, but never before had we ever looked at each other, or into each other's eyes.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked quietly, almost in a shy manner.

"Are you cold?" he asked.

I shook my head and he proceeded to stroke my arm with his hand "You're getting goosebumps…"

I quickly folded my arms together to prevent him from seeing them. I don't know why it was such an embarrassing moment for me, but I sort of felt like he could tell that I really wasn't cold. Maybe he knew I was just enamored by his presence.

"No, I'm ok!" I said. "Really."

He eyed me with a look I didn't recognize and nodded, momentarily grinning at my reaction then turning serious.

"What do you think happened to Rem?" he asked me.

I shrugged as a sign of no knowledge "I don't know what happened to her spirit, but it left."

"To go where?"

I shrugged again "I don't know where they go."

He looked to the ocean and after a moment asked "Is she going to come back?"

Somehow, I knew that was not very likely, the physics of it never allowed things like that. That was one thing I knew better than anything "I don't think so…"

We both went quiet and I felt so self-conscious, thinking of things to say but my feeble teenage brain let me down.

"Are you sad?" I asked him.

He turned to me and looked over me and my dress, then settled his glare on my eyes "I really don't know how I feel." He confessed. "I guess I just need time to process."

I nodded in agreement. In a way, I felt much the same. It was fun being a human, but I didn't know whether I liked it or preferred not having a body. "Well, if you need to talk about it… I'll be around anytime."

He smiled at that. I noticed it and asked "Is that funny?"

"No, well, not exactly." He said. "It's just amusing how this all played out. I mean, you always ask about human stuff and now you can experience it yourself. Plus you got to be a very… hot one."

"Hot?"

"Yeah, like… attractive," he informed me casually and unmoved.

I smiled, my stomach feeling strange but nice. He thought I was attractive too? I wanted to scream excitedly but I kept my composure. Well this summer might not end up being such a bore after all… maybe this was going to turn out to be an interesting experience.


End file.
